Editor's Notebook

EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

BY ART CULLEN

People not so enlightened as I have told me that if you lock three women in a room together, two will scratch out the third’s eyes. If you lock five men in a room together, three will suck all the oxygen out of the room and suffocate the other two. They will then wonder what happened to the other two when they ask either blue corpse if he would like another beer.

EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

BY ART CULLEN

Rural voters gave Republicans the keys to the car in Des Moines and Washington the last election. They took a look at what has happened — stagnant wages, 67 counties losing population every single year for the past 30, consolidating schools, foreigners in the checkout lane who can’t speak English but use food stamps.

They wanted a change. With the GOP in control, we can finally and forever get government off our backs and out of our bank account.

EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

BY ART CULLEN

Our editorial Friday celebrating Storm Lake’s embrace of refugees contained this offending paragraph: “Mainline Protestant, Evangelical and Catholic Christians have all stepped up to support our new neighbors — whether they’re Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim or Missouri Synod.” A good Lutheran reader from Schaller didn’t like being lumped in with those non-Christians and demanded an explanation. He passed the editorial around to his friends at church Sunday and they didn’t know what to make of it, either.

EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

BY ART CULLEN

Here’s what I wish: I wish Peter Jok would get arrested and detained.

Not that I have anything against the leading scorer in Big 10 men’s basketball at about 21 points per game for the Iowa Hawkeyes. I love the guy.

And I love his story. Because, it’s the story of hundreds or even thousands of Storm Lakers who yearn for freedom.

EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

BY ART CULLEN

President Trump wants to unravel the rope that binds Buena Vista County’s economy by announcing over the weekend that he intends to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico.

EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

BY ART CULLEN

You’ve probably heard before about those McKenna brothers who, in the pioneer days, jack-knifed with their mule team and covered wagon along Hwy. 7 near M50. In the ditch near Outlet Creek they knew they never could make it back to the Starlite in Fort Dodge for a warm bath and dry sheets. They would have to just bore into the side of yonder hill near Sulphur and wait out the winter.

EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

BY ART CULLEN

Is that a freight train whistle coming round the bend? The Storm Lake City Council is studying whether to impose mandatory garbage collection on every residence in The City Beautiful, and the steam is starting to build against it. When long-time local Norm Lund shows up to ask that his freedom to haul his own trash to the dump be respected, the council might want to reconsider.

Remember the railroad crossings?

Mandatory garbage collection could trigger the same sort of opposition.

EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

BY ART CULLEN

Nothing stands in the way of the Des Moines Water Works lawsuit against Buena Vista, Calhoun and Sac counties over nitrate pollution of the Raccoon River reaching a federal bench trial this June in Sioux City.

All hopes for a mediated settlement fell apart with the Democrats’ loss of a Senate majority in the November elections.

EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

BY ART CULLEN

Don’t worry. We got this.              

That’s the message wafting by after the Storm Lake City Council last week allowed City Manager Jim Patrick a year’s extension on his contract without a pay raise.

The message a year ago when a couple new council members were sworn in was that change was coming to City Hall.

But this contract apparently got in the way.

It says that if the council terminates the city manager’s employment it must pay him a regular salary for six months out.

EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

BY ART CULLEN

In this, the final week of Advent preparing for the Nativity (and ultimately the Judgment), the public discourse turns to what constitutes a sanctuary. Some places, like Los Angeles and Chicago, have declared themselves “sanctuary cities” where undocumented immigrants somehow will be protected from the federales. Not sure how that works. Rep. Steve King wants to cut off federal funds to those places. Not sure how that works, either.

But just what is a sanctuary city?